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Dear Parents,
We are delighted to inform you that our Ofsted report is now available. We attained Outstanding in all five areas and an overall Outstanding judgement. The report is attached and we have sent a printed copy to you as well. We are so proud of this achievement.
This would not have been possible without the sustained and continuous hard work and commitment of all the staff within our school; the exceptional children who demonstrated exemplary behaviour and spoke so confidently to the inspectors about their learning and their school and you as parents who have continued to support us in all we strive for. We also really appreciate the very positive responses which you posted through the Ofsted Parent survey.
This inspection builds on our previous Outstanding inspection from many years ago, back in March 2012, a period of over 12 years. The school has continually met the ever demanding changes and challenges during this time and I can assure you, we will continue to do our best to maintain and build on these high standards and expectations.
This is a really positive outcome for St Robert Bellarmine School community. We look forward to the year ahead and continuing to help all our children to do their very best in all aspects of school life.
Many thanks for your continuing support.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/19-wQ8P5sGKfA7aHJ1VpSO9TBd_BhuCxW/view
Kind regards,
Mairead O’Neill Dowell
Dear Parents/Carers
As you are aware, we had an Ofsted Inspection this week on Tuesday and Wednesday. Unfortunately, we are unable to share the outcome of the inspection yet with our children and parents until the report is officially published and because of the timing of the inspection, this will not now be until after the summer holidays.
We are, however, really pleased with the outcome and I just wanted to congratulate our wonderful children who played such an important part in the process. We are so proud of them! The inspectors remarked time and time again about their "exemplary behaviour", their politeness, respect for one another and the high standard of their work across the whole school. The children really enjoyed talking to the inspectors and their pride in their school was so obvious! You can be rightly proud of them too, as I'm sure you are!
I just wanted to thank you for the wonderful support you have given the school and the overwhelmingly positive responses in the Parents Survey. We really appreciate it! We are looking forward to the final weeks of school and enjoying the end of term activities with you all.
Kind regards
Mairead O'Neill Dowell
Sefton Schools say #kNOwKnifeCrime
As a school we are always looking for opportunities and ways to educate our pupils on how to keep themselves safe. We have decided to team up with #kNOwKnifeCrime campaign and London Marathon 2024 and we will be fundraising for bleeding control kits and cabinets for outside our schools in Sefton. We want to keep our community safe and be well resourced in the event someone needs medical assistance.
Nursery to Year 6 pupils – Mini marathon
We will be having a mini marathon event in our school the week of 15th April 2024 where all pupils will participate in running in our school grounds. For participating in this event all children will receive a London mini marathon certificate and our school will receive a trophy.
Next week we will be informing the children about this campaign. As a school we will be making a donation for a bleed control kit cabinet outside our school. Younger pupils will focus on important lifesaving facts of how a bleed control kit can keep someone alive whilst waiting for medical assistance. It will also focus on keeping healthy and achieving ambitious goals by setting ourselves the mini marathon challenge.
Pupils in Year 5 and Year 6 will be having a virtual assembly from the the #kNOwKnifeCrime campaigner Laura Hughes (who established in Memory of Colin McGinty) a -kNOwKnifeCrime initiative to educate young people on the wider lasting impact of knife crime. The assembly will be age appropriate and help children to consider the choices they have. As part of our safeguarding work, we need to educate our pupils on the dangers they may be exposed to. The purpose of the fundraiser is not to scare or worry our community but to raise awareness of the possible risks and donate money to purchase bleeding control kits for our local community.
On Wednesday 17th April representatives from Year 5 and Year 6 pupils will be participating in a relay event where they will be handed the ‘bleed control kit baton’ from St Phillip’s School pupils and then run from our School to Springwell Park passing on a ‘bleed control kit’ to show how we are working as a community to keep our community safe. If your child is running in the event on 17th April, you will receive additional information.
All children in Year 5 and Year 6 will be supporting the event in some way, should they not be part of the running relay group. 84 schools in Sefton are also participating in this event which is set to be covered by the media.
#kNOwKnifeCrime
Thank you
Mrs Dowell
25th March 2024
Dear Parents/Carers
Just a few updates for the week leading up to the Easter break.
Wednesday 27th March Junior Easter Service 7pm in church.
Please make sure your child is in church by 6.45 so we can start at 7pm. We are really looking forward to sharing this occasion with you all.
Thursday 28th March
Easter Competition
If your child wishes to take part in this, please bring in their entries on Wednesday or Thursday morning. Thank you for your amazing contributions!
As you may remember we had our RE inspection earlier this half term. We have received the draft report and the final version will be sent out on Monday 15th April.
We will be giving individual prizes for good attendance this week. There will also be two classes who will share the best class attendance reward this term. Well done to Year 5 and Year 6. They will get their treat on Thursday.
Sefton Schools say #kNOwKnifeCrime
We will be taking part in this Sefton event on Wed 17th April. A group of children will run from school to Springwell Primary. The rest of the school will participate by running around school grounds. The campaign is to raise awareness of Knife Crime and to provide bleed control kits and cabinets for communities. There is a letter attached with more detail provided.
Summer School uniform
Summer school uniform is Girls:-Blue and white check dress, white or maroon cardigan or usual winter uniform
Boys: usual winter uniform or grey shorts
Please make sure your child wears the correct school shoes. This means flat black shoes – not pumps or sandals or jellies for girls and black shoes for boys, not trainers.
Unfortunately, we had some really sad news on Friday. Father Barry, who was Parish Priest here up until March 2020 sadly died on Friday last week. He had been unwell for some time. He will be really missed by us all. Our thoughts and prayers are with his family during this time.
School finishes at 1.30pm on THURSDAY 28th MARCH
Return to school on Monday 15th April at 8.55am
Thank you for all your support and cooperation last term. We wish you all a happy and holy Easter and look forward to seeing you back for the Summer term.
Kind regards,
M Dowell
School Nurse online drop in session 17th January 2024 between 1-4pm
Our school will be taking part in National Road Safety Week 20th-24th November 2023
November 2023
Dear Parents,
As you probably remember we gave you an online questionnaire recently to seek your views on our school. Thank you very much for your replies, there were 108 responses in total. The vast majority of you responded that you agree or strongly agree with all the statements and are pleased with the school.
Q1. 99% of you believe that your child enjoys at school.
Q2. 98% believe that your child feels safe at school.
Q3. 98% believe that your child is taught well.
Q4. 95% believe there is a good standard of behaviour in school.
Q5. 96% believe that the school deals effectively with bullying. This includes parents who replied that they “Don’t know” as they have had no experience of their child being bullied.
Q6. 99% say they are happy with the values and attitudes the school teaches.
Q6. 97% believe they are made to feel welcome in school.
Q7. 98% say that school seeks the views of parents and take account of their suggestions. This includes 9% who said they didn’t know.
Q8. 97% believe that school gives them a clear understanding of what is taught in the curriculum.
Q9. 96% say that school gives them a clear understanding of what is taught in Religious Education.
Q10. 95% believe that school enables their child to enjoy and achieve a good standard of work in Religious Education. 5% say they didn’t know.
Q11. 95% believe that school enables their child to enjoy and achieve a good standard of work in a range of subjects.
Q12. 93% say that school keeps them well informed about their child’s progress in subjects including RE. This includes 7% who said they didn’t know.
Q13. 96% would recommend this school to another parent.
Even though the results of the questionnaire were very positive we are always keen to continue to improve as a school and address any issues and concerns. We take your concerns very seriously and have responded in some of the following ways.
As a result of the survey we will continue to promote our annual anti bullying or Friendship fortnight which culminates in our Assembly in the Round where the children reflect and celebrate on what they have learnt. As ever, if you have a concern about your child feeling unhappy, for whatever reason, please contact the school so we can do our best to address it.
In response to how well we make you aware of what your child is learning we continue to hold a parents evening or Pupil Progress evening in the Autumn and Spring term and you receive a written report in the Summer term.
We have also introduced Parent open class sessions for you to come into school and look at your child’s books with your child.
Homework diaries/reading record books are a good way to keep in regular communication with staff and for you to put forward any concerns. Each half term we publish a medium term plan of what your child will be learning in class.
On the Curriculum page of the website and on your class pages, all information about each subject and each year group is kept updated there for you.
If there are any other ways you would like us to help keep you informed of your child’s progress and learning, please contact Mrs Dowell at school and we may be able to put other strategies into place.
Homework is important, as you know, to help your child to consolidate and practise key skills and knowledge. The one to one support you are able to give your child, in for instance reading, cannot be under-estimated. We thank you again for your support with homework and are continually overwhelmed by the quality of the work produced with the topic projects.
Here are a few of the many positive comments made on the survey which we fully appreciate.
“Just an excellent school from top to bottom!”
“Absolutely over the moon with the start my son has received. The teachers are outstanding, the levels/amounts of work and different topics are brilliant and my son looks forward to attending school each day.”
“My child and family as a whole, have been fully supported by the school in more ways than one. They continue to do so and I can’t fault the school/teachers in any way at all. I always highly recommend the school and will continue to do so.”
“Brilliant school, very happy we decided to go here.”
“We love this school! Like a little family, everyone is amazing and you can really see how much work goes into each day! We love all your rewards and praise given for achievements and our daughter adores school. We can’t ask for anything more! Thank you all!”
Thank you once again for your continued support.
Mairead O’Neill Dowell
Our school nurse will no longer be offering a drop in session located in our school for parents. The meetings will now take place virtually each term and we feel this will be a lot more convenient to you as the meetings can be accessed from wherever you are by following this link https://nhs.vc/schoolnursesseftonprincest
The first appointment will take place on Wednesday 15th November 2023 between 1.00-4.00 pm. Please see attached leaflet for further information but if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact school.
Attendance Information
You will have heard on the news recently about the national drop in children’s attendance at school post Covid Pandemic. At St Robert Bellarmine we have traditionally had very good whole school attendance but sadly this has declined here following the national trend in line with the national figures. We are refreshing and reminding parents about our policies and procedures for attendance here. We have consulted again with our School Council regarding attendance.
Parents will receive regular updates on attendance from school. The Headteacher and all the staff monitor attendance daily, weekly, half termly and termly. Children are rewarded in school for excellent attendance and they are very clear about why excellent attendance is important.
Why is regular school attendance so important for my child?
Regular attendance at school means that your child can make the most of their education and improve their chances in adult life.
School can also help develop your child’s social skills such as making and developing friendships. A regular and punctual attendance pattern will also help your child when they go to secondary school and later when they enter the world of work.
The link between attendance and attainment in school is clear.
The more a pupil is in school the more they increase their opportunity to fulfil their potential.
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100%-97% Pupils in this category have excellent attendance
Above 97% Less than 6 days absence a year, Excellent Attendance! These pupils will almost certainly get the best grades they can, leading to better prospects for the future. Pupils will also get into a habit of attending school which will help in the future.
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97%-95% Pupils in this category have good attendance
96% 10 days absence in a year. These pupils are likely to achieve good grades and form a habit of attending school regularly.
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94%-90% Pupils in this category have a school attendance that needs to improve
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90% and below Pupils in this category have poor attendance
90% 19 days absence a year. The Government classes young people in this group as ‘Persistent Absentees’ and it will be almost impossible to keep up with work with this level of absence.
Families of pupils in this categaory will be:
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Punctuality
Schools are legally required to take a register of pupils first thing in the morning and at some point in the afternoon.
If a pupil is late but the register is still open they are marked as late. If the register has already closed when a pupil arrives late and without a satisfactory explanation, it will be classed as late after the register has closed which will count as an absence. Our registers close at 9:30am.
Continual punctuality is important because if, for example, a child arrives 15 minutes late at school each day, they lose almost 2 weeks of education a year!
Holidays during term time
No term time leave for holidays is routinely authorised at St Robert Bellarmine.
Parents who choose to take their child out of school without written permission from the school may be issued with a fixed penalty fine.
Only in exceptional circumstances may a head teacher grant permission for leave.
How can I help my child attend school regularly?
What do I do if my child is absent from school?
What should I do if I’m worried about my child’s school attendance?
The first thing to do is to contact the school to discuss your concerns.
What are my responsibilities regarding my child’s school attendance?
As a parent/carer it is your responsibility to ensure that any child of compulsory school age attends school both regularly and on time. The local authority has a duty to make sure that all parents/carers fulfil this responsibility.
What will happen if my child does not attend school regularly?
School will contact you in the first instance to raise concerns about your child’s attendance, usually with a letter to inform you what your child’s current attendance is.
If they see no improvement, or there are particular difficulties involved, there will be a period of monitoring.
If there is still no improvement a referral will be made to the Education Welfare Service (EWO). This may then lead to an Attendance panel meeting in school with the EWO and the Headteacher.
What if my child’s school attendance does not improve?
Parents whose children are on a school register and fail to ensure the regular and punctual attendance of their child(ren), may be guilty of an offence under Section 444 or 444(1A) of the Education Act 1996 and the Local Authority may issue a Penalty Notice or take enforcement action through the Courts to secure regular attendance.
How will regular school attendance help my child?
School gives your child a wide range of opportunities and experiences in the form of academic lessons, educational trips and school clubs allowing them to develop their interests and achieve their full potential. Regular school attendance means that your child can make the most of their education.
#gottabeintowin
This is our school hashtag to help us to improve our attendance.
Our School Council have come up with some great ideas to help us do it!
Weekly Class reward
Next Friday 6th October 2023 will be our first Freddo Friday Reward.
Termly Rewards
The School Council will review the rewards each term.